The NCAA Tournament began without much folderol in 1939 and, over the course of its 81 editions, persisted through World War II, the Cold War, Vietnam protests, 9/11 and the Great Recession. It seemed as indestructible as any American institution, but we learned Thursday it is vulnerable.

The planned 2020 edition was felled by a viral illness, COVID-19 — or, more accurately, the concern about its rapid spread.

It ended not with Mark Emmert presenting a wooden trophy to the championship team — Kansas? Gonzaga? Maybe Dayton or San Diego State? — but with a single paragraph in which the devastation upon one of American culture’s most cherished institutions seemed almost disguised.

"Today, NCAA president Mark Emmert and the Board of Governors canceled the Division I men's and women’s basketball tournaments, as well as all remaining winter and spring NCAA championships. The decision is based on the evolving COVID-19 public health threat, our ability to ensure the events do not contribute to the spread of the pandemic and the impracticality of hosting such events at any time during this academic year given ongoing decisions by other entities."

Those of us who live in this game throughout the year, most intensely between November and April, endeavor not to resent the millions who pop in each March to enjoy the brackets and the 48-hour opening day and the Sweet 16 and Final Four. Everyone is welcome, save for those stopping by to pejoratively refer to college basketball as a one-month sport. The tourists make the sport immensely more popular.

Those who will declare this to be a lost season will be incorrect. These past four months poured so much joy into winter: Myles Powell's clutch shots in Seton Hall's comeback at St. John’s; Dayton All-American Obi Toppin’s through-the-legs dunk in his final college home game; Wisconsin coach Greg Gard celebrating a Big Ten championship by noting the margin of victory in the decisive game — how it matched perfectly with the slogan the team devised to honor assistant coach Howard Moore, who lost his wife and daughter in a horrific car accident last summer: Do Moore, Be Moore, 4 Moore.

"You just feel bad for the players. The rest of us can coach again, cover it again. Fans can watch again. For the players, this may be it," UCLA coach Mick Cronin told Sporting News. "We had an eerie feeling (Wednesday) night, even scouting the Cal-Stanford game. … I knew it was over."

Thus will this always be an unfulfilled season. Teams such as Northern Kentucky, Robert Morris, Winthrop and North Dakota State had won conference tournament championships in the past several days, earning automatic bids to nowhere. The Big Ten's quest for 10 touranment bids? Who knows? There will be no Final Four this season, not just in the sense of the occasion but in the identity of the teams: those four that get to celebrate above the 64 others who enter the tournament, above the 349 others who compete in Division I.

Would Villanova have jump-shot its way to Atlanta? Would Michigan State’s Cassius Winston have stitched the Spartans together in time to make a ninth run for Tom Izzo? Would Rutgers have ended its 29-year NCAA Tournament drought? When Ashton Hagans stepped away from the Kentucky Wildcats in advance of the final regular-season game against Florida, none of us could have imagined we would not again see him on the court this season.

The opportunity for the players to create such memories never can be recovered. At least when the Stanley Cup playoffs were idle in 2005 or the World Series in 1994, those were money disputes in which the players had a stake and a say. The athletes were helpless here. What occurred likely is wise, but still can be heartbreaking.

It took the NCAA many hours beyond the cancellation of nearly every remaining Division I men’s basketball tournament to make this announcement. The Big Ten release declaring its men’s basketball championship was canceled came at 11:43 a.m. ET, fewer than 20 minutes before Michigan and Rutgers were scheduled to tip off the four-game second round.

The NCAA release did not arrive until 4:16 p.m., giving many in the basketball community hope that March Madness might be delayed to May, or whenever, to at least give everyone time to discover if the pandemic could be contained and normal life could resume. Consider that Major League Soccer’s hiatus is defined at 30 days, with the potential to reevaluate then.

The NCAA’s announcement was final and came with only that modest amount of illumination. Whereas Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren conducted a 14-minute news conference Thursday afternoon to explain his decision, Emmert was not made available, and a request for additional comment was declined.

Choosing not to play the tournament over the course of the next three weeks is the obviously correct decision, although we can’t know if delaying a final decision by postponing instead of canceling would have been feasible in the absence of a more expansive explanation.

We likely will never know the true benefit of abandoning these events. If the pandemic is contained with some speed, then the disappearance of one March’s madness might well be among the catalysts for such a welcome outcome. That is a victory for which everyone in this sport would be willing to sacrifice. Let’s hope that’s the magical outcome we get this month.

And when this sport is ready for its month on the national stage in 2021, may everyone be healthy — save for a desperate craving of the NCAA Tournament after too long a wait.